Topic: Rubean published an H1 trading statement that showed ongoing dynamic topline growth. Further, the company published final FY23, in line with estimates. Lastly, Rubean announced that Commerz Globalpay went live with Rubean´s SoftPOS solution in Germany. In detail:

Final FY23 figures in line with estimates. Sales came in at € 1.0m (21% yoy) and EBIT at € -3.8m (vs FY22: € -4.0m) both in line with our estimates (eNuW: € 1.0m sales; € -3.6m EBIT). Lower personnel expenses (-12% yoy; € 2.9m vs eNuW: € 3.2m) partially compensating for slightly higher other OpEx of € 1.3m (16% yoy) and material expenses of € 0.4m (58% yoy).  Still, the negative net income of  € -3.9m resulted in a deficit uncovered by the equity of € 3.8m, thus requiring a strong FY24 .

Strong H1´24 with dynamic sequential improvements. With a turnover of € c.839k in H1 (370% yoy), after € 493k in Q1 (incl. a € 250-300k one-off, eNuW), Rubean kicked off the year really strong. The growth was mainly driven by the newly won partners that are starting to materialize. Still, the product roll-out and thus the sales ramp-up was slower than initially expected (eNuW: € 1.2m in H1´24).

Yet, the product roll-out remains in full swing despite minor delays. Rubean has signed a whole series of important strategic partnerships within a short period of time (i.e. SEUR, Global Payments, Correos, emerchantpay), that all show very clearly that Rubean´s leading softPOS product is ready and that the roll-out is in full swing. The go-live of Commerz Globalpay (joint veture between Global Payments and Commerzbank) with Rubean´s Soft-POS solution underlines this once more. Consequently, management still expects for FY24 to grow sales by 135% at mid-point to € 2.2-2.5m. On the back of the recently announced cooperations, paired with further likely customer wins, we consider this as achievable, but reduce our estimates to € 2.5m in order to reflect certain delays which resulted in a softer than anticipated H1´24.

Nevertheless, we see Rubean at the forefront of the rapidly growing market for mobile payment acceptance systems and hence expect the company to achieve profitability within FY25 but consider managements mid-term vision of € 10+m in sales and 40+% EBIT-margin by FY27 as ambitious.

BUY with a reduced PT of € 8.50 (old: € 9.00), based on our DCF.